Warren says no children being returned to parents
They’re not running a reunification process, senator asserts after visiting detention centre
Avisibly upset US Senator Elizabeth Warren visited the detention centre where the Trump administration said separated migrant families would be reunited and deported and said she’d seen no evidence that the process was underway.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement late Saturday that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “dedicated the Port Isabel Service Processing Center as the primary family reunification and removal Centre for adults in their custody”.
But Warren, D-Mass., spent two hours inside the facility speaking with immigration officials and detained immigrant mothers Sunday night and said there were no reunifications to report. She said she spoke with nine women: “In every case, they were lied to. In every case, save one, they have not spoken with their children. And in every case, they do not know where their children are”.
“It’s clear, Warren said. “They’re not running a reunification process here.”
Advocates interviewed outside the locked gates earlier in the day described desperate parents giving up their hopes of asylum to get their children back in their arms more quickly. They also noted that the Port Isabel, Texas, facility is not set up to house minors.
“This is the most inefficient, preposterous system that I have ever encountered,” said Sirine Shebaya, a Washington-area civil rights lawyer who had flown to south Texas with a team that spent Friday and the weekend interviewing parents.
“We have people in there who are considering not continuing on with really strong asylum claims because they think they’ll get reunited with their kids faster if they give up their claim,” Shebaya said. “That’s just wrong.”
The Trump administration said it was taking steps to return some 2,053 “separated minors” who had been taken into custody as part of Trump’s border crackdown, after the government elected to criminally prosecute all adults caught crossing the border. The statement said 522 children had been returned as of Saturday, and another 16 were expected to be with their parents within 24 hours.
Shebaya said Port Isabel, a remote, 1,200-person facility surrounded by a wind farm, a wildlife refuge and miles of empty prairie crawling with coyotes, falcons and bull snakes, “seems to be at capacity” and is “not equipped to hold children.”
“That kind of begs the question,” she said. “‘Where are they going to put the children?’”
Shebaya said most migrants she interviewed were on a “fasttrack” deportation process for recent border crossers, which is delayed only if they express a fear for their lives. Such a declaration triggers an interview to see whether they have a valid asylum claim. If they do, they could have a court hearing. If they don’t, they could be deported, with limited avenues to appeal that decision.